After hearing Iwata's GDC speach and then reading the recent article in GamrFeed about Nintendo being doomed. I started thinking more about it. But could these cheap games actually lead to bigger sales on the Big three and potentially growing the market?

My initial reply was, their will always be a market for high end big budget games. Even if low budget app games and cheap social network games sell their will always be a place for the big budget hardcore games. This got me thinking of course true gamers are going to want better and bigger games then social network and App store games deliver. Many greedy developers may quickly jump on the App and social network express but those who remain will still be able to see their bigger budget games. This lead me to wondering if software prices for big budget games would have to raise to keep developers from going to the dark side (Social Network/App).

But then I thought of something. FarmVille has over 300-million users. Thats far larger then any video game platform has ever reached. Then I started thinking about Nintendo's Blue Ocean strategy a huge part of this strategy is that Nintendo would widen the market by appealing to non-gamers and turning them into gamers. The Wii and DS both showed that their are millions of potential gamers who have yet to be reached.

Then it hit me, their are 300-million FarmVille players. That is huge that is what almost 100-million consumers then have even been reached by consoles. Then I thought abit more about Nintendo's strategy, turning those non-gamers into gamers. That when I realized App games and Social Network games are both reaching non-gamers and making them into gamers at a very high rate.

So while Nintendo sees every sale of a cheap ass App game as being a loss to them, it infact could be a new potential customer. App games and Social network games could be gateway drugs for gaming? I actually know someone who never was a gamer but is playing games on his I-Phone, he started with Cut the Rope , Angry Birds and a few others. He now buys more sofisticated games.

Today Epic Games and other big publishers studios are starting to produce games closer to what we'd expect to see on consoles. These games are being bought by consumers who chances are don't own consoles. Then these consumers see the higher quality and could potentially be hooked. These consumers are now ripe for the picking , they wen't from not playing any games to suddenly dedicating hours upon ours on their favorite games.

Now Nintendo , Microsoft and Sony are in the perfect position to release transition titles. Titles similiar to those offered by Social Networks and App store's but more high quality. If Nintendo's Blue Ocean strategy works then why wouldn't it work for social network games and App store games? These new game markets are drawing in people faster then any console before. And these new gamers are ripe for the picking.

Nintendo and Sony could really start targetting these markets, with their cheap downloadable titles. Getting an I-Pad/Phone/Pod gamer to purchase a 3DS or NGP to experiance games they can't get on the App store or FaceBook. Then try selling them more sophisticated handheld titles before selling them home consoles and high end games.

Could Blue Ocean work for SocialNetwork/App games? or am I completely insaine and the cheap games will not turn non-gamers into gamers. Will they simply draw away gamers from consoles and handhelds until the market implodes. Is Social Network Games and App games going to be the death of MS,Sony,Nintendo or its saviour.

What are your thoughts?

these facebook aps and iphone/android games are great in growing the gaming market. out of those 300 million farmville players, probably most will play more games of its nature, lesss will move onto more less causal titles which out of them move to buy an console or pc titles. 

Basically you are right these do benifit the big three because the more people playing games the more people you are interested in buying consoles. 

i was given an console (ps1) by my parents but for many these type of games hell even Solitare or pinball you get free with windows help produce new gamers. 

I could see it drive more people to the home consoles or the PC/Mac, but I think it's going to change the dynamics of gaming still. You should read this interesting analysis on the subject.

Basically, if people get used to buying decent games $1 a piece, then it's not the big blockbuster that are going to be hurt, it's all the $40 trash that is especially prevalent on the Wii this generation that will be hurting. Smartphones and all the small games on them are doing great, and they're helping raise the bar for what a retail game needs to be to be properly recognized.

I think this is about the right way to look at it, and the reason Nintendo feels threatened is because they will lose a lot of money from all those trash games not selling, because they'll lose licensing income. I can't see many games from Nintendo being directly threatened by these new games (Wii Music maybe), so it's not Nintendo's own products that are on the line here.

But I agree that this could lead people to other platforms. No doubt a lot of people will be satisfied just gaming on their phones, but there will be people who want additional experiences.

None of the above. It's two completely different markets. Nobody is going to forego Call of Duty and Metroid and Uncharted and Gears of War for Farmville and Mafia Wars, or indeed for Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja. They are completely different experiences.

Yes, the latter will unfortunately end up being more popular, but they have mass market appeal, and they're not cannibalising the sales of full games.

I think it would not benfit any of the big three. It would distract some gamers.

"No one will ever drive those cheap, weak Japanese cars when they could buy a real car from GM!"

Mobile and browser games are already starting to draw more and more development talent, which is a finite resource, and more and more consumer time/money, also a finite resource.  It may only have a pinprick effect on more traditional games at this moment, but it does not automatically follow that such will forever be the case. 

Doesn't WoW make more money than farmville? If anyone can make something like that, it would benefit greatly for themselves. Anyways its going to co exist the market as long the big three doesn't mess up big time, like those free flash games.

I don't believe smartphone games and FarmVille are a threat to console gaming. Different and sometimes overlapping markets. Different because those who view consoles as "nerdy" readily play games like FarmVille. Overlapping because those who console game may smartphone game and Facebook game while at work.

I voted "split the industry in two." I honestly believe the only part of the industry smartphone and social network games threaten is handheld gaming. If Nintendo does not dive in to the cheap smartphone gaming, they could over time force Nintendo out of handheld gaming altogether because of their sheer scope of library, radically cheap development costs, and Nintendo's own extravagant development costs (in both time and money).

As for Sony in handheld gaming, I am of the thought Sony is not, has not, and will never put out a handheld like the Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, DS or 3DS.

Sony, I believe, is in handheld gaming for the sole reason to hurt Nintendo's bottom line. Sony has shown with the PS1 and PS2 that they can dominate the console market. Henceforth, if they can stick around long enough to siphon off some of Nintendo's handheld core along with smartphone gaming doing the same, they can be enough of a nuisance to force Nintendo out of the handheld market.

Well, its not going to kill off any kind of gaming. There will always be a market for the Marios/COD's/Halos's etc console games. There will also always be people to make games for these people because the "industry" wants to flex there gamepeen. We "might" at some point lose some of those new idea games, but then again thats what WiiWare/PSN/ and whatever MS's is called is for.

PC market did not hurt the console market. Why in the hell would the portable version. I'd also add I find it to be a good thing. Its just more competition for our money. Companies do there best when they feel threatened. Look at Nintendo for a good example of that. Nintendo/Sega Nintendo/Sony Sony/MS and so on and so on. As long as the company is focused its great for all of us no matter what we perfer.

The fb games are just quick time killer/filler and they are good at that. More or less, a topic to talk about to keep the social network part going.

Those flash games also hog your system resources since they aren't gaming optimized.

I've tried many games and all of them becomes laggy after a few days due to the amount of stuff on screen. It's like, you can't even display 7 zombies on screen at a time with top of the line computer.

So, the fun only last a few days.

Majority of the games are clones of one another or clone of a clone of a clone or combination of clones.

You're pretty seen everything and done everything after a few games.

If such platform could kill full fledge console gaming, humanity deserver to go extinct.

Excuse me while I go die in this little corner.